Life With Ella

There was a knock on the door tonight at around 5:50. I was upstairs doing some work and Ella was in the living room “reading books”, and Sunny was downstairs working. Sunny opened the door and let out the happiest shriek! All of a sudden we heard, “Ella – come downstairs!” Ella went downstairs and her two buddies were waiting at the bottom of the stairs with a big surprise. Check out the pictures…A herd of dancing elephants! Helen got the girls the same costume as Ella! (Notice in the right hand corner that Towby has an orange crayon in his mouth. Beagle caught on film!)They all fall downElephant huggieElephant kissLook at Ella’s happy eyesCan you identify the children under those elephants?Check out the focusHere is Ella at Stella and Juliet’s house about 10 minutes after the photo shoot at our house. She once again did not want to take her costume off. Luckily, Stella got very hot in her costume (Juliet ditched hers right after she left our house) and she took it off and Ella followed her lead. Stella is a great role model.

We came back yesterday on a very early flight and we just tried to stay up all day. Ella did really well. She took a nap at a relatively normal time. We went out to dinner and then we crashed. Today, we did business as usual. Sunny got up early and went to the gym, then we all went to a birthday party of one of Ella’s friends from My Gym. The party was a lot of fun. Ella did a great job. After the party, Ella took a nap and then she did some painting. We all played around the house and then Stella and Juliet came home from LA. The girls had a sweet reunion. Ella fell asleep at around 9:00 so hopefully she is back on her regular schedule. We’ll see if she sleeps through the night.

Ella and the birthday girl Isabelle.

Our little Picasso.

Is she a lefty?

Playing around in the tunnel

The Three Musketeers are back together again

Mommy is very entertaining!

Ring around the rosie…

So this is what they mean by parallel play

Here’s Ella in a rain outfit that the Tuckers gave us during our baby shower. It finally fits her and it is soooo cute!

Today – Sunny and I took a ride up to New City to visit Sunny’s dad. We had great surprise up there when we were able to see Sunny’s brother Jerry and two of Sunny’s nieces, Elisheva and Aliza. We all caught up on each other’s lives and look forward to having Ella meet her cousins. Ella stayed home with grandma and papa – she’s still on SF time and slept super late. Last night, we had a great visit with AJ, Michael and Normyn. AJ and Michael brought a bunch of presents back from Japan for Ella so she had a great time opening them. Her favorite was an Elmo umbrella. It will soon be rainy season in SF so Ella will be able to run around town with her little Elmo umbrella. Today, Ella collected acorns with grandma on the terrace, went to the park with grandma and papa and played all around the house. We are leaving early in the morning and will be back in SF tomorrow. We had a great visit back east.
Ella with her Elmo umbrella

Brushing teeth with AJ and Ella’s new duckie toothbrush

Looks like grandma and mommy are enjoying the blocks more than Ella

Ella and AJ sharing some love

Finding acorns – just like in Totoro

Look at the acorns I found!

Walking home from the park with papa

Reading with grandma

Even grandma and papa like Yo Gabba Gabba

Sunny Ella and I arrived in NY last night. Ella was so happy to see grandma and papa (so were we). We had a great flight – we flew Virgin America for the first time. It was a lot of fun. We pretty much relaxed today – we all went to the park with Ella, and we rested up because tonight, AJ (Jamie) had her album release party at Joe’s Pub. I have to say – this isn’t a big sister talking either – but Jamie was INCREDIBLE. She sang to a sold out crowd – I think the venue holds like 160 people or something and she was up there like she had control of the universe. Ella was mesmerized. She watched AJ so closely – she sang along to the songs that she knew. The show didn’t start until 9:30 and she stayed up for the entire thing and only had to leave one time. We all loved being at the show. We didn’t take any pictures of AJ because we didn’t want to distract her, but there are a couple of pictures from the night. It was also great seeing so many people who we love all in one place. Ella really misses Stella and Juliet and was screaming tonight (Well really at 1:00 am) that she needed to watch Stella and Juliet on the computer. We showed her a few videos and now she is sound asleep.

Ella after her evening bath about to get ready to go to AJ’s show
Brushing teeth with Papa…one of Ella’s favorite pastimes

Ella right before we left to go to the show

Here we are mesmerized by AJ’s music

Ella eating a lollipop that Irv Singer gave her. It really kept her busy for quite a while. Thans Irv.

Today, we left the house early to go to Half Moon Bay to a pumpkin patch. This was the first time Ella has been to a farm/pumpkin patch and she loved it. We met Stella, Juliet, Helen and Ron there and the 3 amigas tore the place up. Besides running around and touching pumpkins, there were 3 main events for Ella. First, we went into a feeding/petting zoo. The goats were crazy and seemed like they were starving because they just rushed everyone who walked in. One goat bit Sunny on the finger. The feeding frenzy did not seem to bother Ella at all. She also fell for a baby goat who was really cute. After the feeding frenzy, we all waited on a very long line with very uncooperative parents to go on a train that went through a mini haunted village. Ella especially loved going through the tunnels. The last thing that we all did at the farm was a pony ride. Because it’s so crowded during this time of year, they have this thing rigged up so that the ponies walk around in a circle – about 8 ponies at a time. This means that the children have to go on the ponies alone. We were hesitant and didn’t even know if they would let Ella go because she’s so small, but they did and she had a great time on the pony. Stella and Juliet went at the same time Ella did and it was so cool to see the three amigas all riding together.

Ella trying to feel the energy from the pumpkin

Ella and Sunny in the middle of a feeding frenzy

Getting to know the baby goat

This picture was taken when Stella and Juliet arrived. Look at that big huggie!

It was a little difficult to get them all to pose for this one

Going on a train ride

Ella making the horsie noise

Ella and Juliet going around the ring

Ride ’em cowgirls

The three amigas

Look at our little pony rider

Sharing a kiss with mommy

After the farm, we went home, the kids took naps and we reconvened at a club called Slims. There was a fundraiser called Soundcheck for the Women’s Re-entry Center and it was an evening of live music. The place was pretty loud, so we took the girls up to the second level. Nobody else was up there, so it was like they had their own club. They loved the live music and danced the night away. Great job to everyone who had anything to do with the fundraiser. It was a great event.

Ring around the Rosie a pocket full of posies…ashes ashes…

they all fall down!

Girls night out

Here we are at the end of a beautiful night

Today, Ella and I had another great day together. We hung around the house in the morning and played in the park in the afternoon. While we were home this morning, I was folding Ella’s laundry and Ella was playing around in her room. We have this thing under her bed that we used to pull out for her to do “tummy time” on. It’s this cute jungle animal thing with dangling animals, a mirror, some music…you get the picture. Anyway…she was playing with it in a 2 year old way and she said, “Ella bring it into the bathroom”. I looked over at her and she was picking it up and carrying it over to the bathroom. She got to one spot where a chair was in the way and she was trying to shove the thing through the door but it was stuck. Ella looked at me and said, “Frustrated!” It was incredible. I guess she hears and learns everything. I said, “Yes, you’re frustrated because it’s stuck here, let me help you.” Ella said, “Mama help Ella”. What a cool thing.

How high can Ella’s hair possibly get?

Hooray! Ella celebrating jumping off a little wall.

Ella started her day at My Gym and had a blast. Ella is making some friends in her class. She has two little buddies – Ava and Isabelle. Isabelle was out this week, but Ava and Ella had a lot of fun. Ella has gained so much confidence in everything that she does. She did a lot of climbing today during class. She also hung out on the trampoline – she can’t jump just yet – just does a lot of bouncing. Here are 3 pictures from her class.Ella on the trampolinePlaying in the ball pit or as I call it, the germ pitElla and Ava on the train swingAfter class, we went home, had some lunch and Ella took a nap. As many of you know, she only naps in her stroller so that’s good for me because I’m not stuck in the house. I went downtown and did some shopping while Ella took her nap. One of the places I went to was Old Navy and I bought Ella an elephant Halloween costume. Ella woke up as I was having a little lunch. She asked me to go to the carousel. Yesterday, Ella fell off one of the horses on the carousel. She wasn’t hurt, but she did bump her head. Even after she fell yesterday, she wanted to go on the carousel. It was a beautiful thing that she wasn’t afraid or traumatized. Today, she “got back on the horse” with no fear. Sunny was home when we got there and she asked to see what I bought. I showed her Ella’s costume and she just loved it. I showed it to Ella and she really didn’t react. We were about to go out to dinner, but I decided to try the top of the costume on Ella. She loved it! She loved it so much that when I tried to take it off her, she went nuts. She started crying and said, “No take off elephant costume, Ella wear it” this went on for a few minutes. We just stuck with her and let her feel her feelings. She was really upset and then Stella, Juliet and Julie saved the day. I guess they heard Ella crying, so they started calling for Ella on the other side of our door. We quickly opened the door and then came in and started playing. Ella immediately stopped crying. THANK YOU GIRLS!We had a great dinner with Phyllis, Michael, Hannah and Naomi (my camera battery was charging, so no pictures). Ella loves them all a lot. We came home and Ella spotted her elephant costume. She said, “Ella wear elephant, Ella put on elephant”. How can you say no to that? We put the costume on, brought her upstairs and had her watch the Sleep episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. She danced around a little and finally settled down. I couldn’t resist posting her elephant picture. As you can tell, we put it on her quickly, it’s a dress rehearsal for the big day where she will be a pristine elephant.Check out how cute the feet are!Here we are both getting very sleepy.

Ella had a great day together. We went to the park, the carousel, and hung out with Stella and Juliet. Later on, Ella was ready to “draw with crayons”. We drew and I took these pictures of her. Ella’s hair is growing now. She has a great head of curly hair. She is right on developmental schedule. She has developed the art of whining. We’re trying to help her find other ways to get what she needs – she does a pretty good job snapping out of the whining, but not always. She’s really doing so well and we love her very much.Here is Ella using both hands to draw.Say cheese!

Today we took it easy with Ella again. Sunny and Ella took a big adventure to Target while I got a massage. Later in the afternoon/early evening, we decided that we would take the girls (Ella, Stella & Juliet) to go to a Fiddler on the Roof sing along in Dolores Park and a celebration for Sukkot. We bought some stuff to eat, went into the park, put down our blankets and had a little picnic. It became really cold outside and the girls seemed like they were freezing. It was sweet in the park, but we all decided that we had to get the kids home. On the way to the car, we stopped for ice cream. We decided that they couldn’t be any colder than they already were. It’s so great to see them have so much fun together.

Take one for the group shot…

Take two – not exactly looking at the camera, but lots of smiles

Sharing popcorn – this was the first time that Ella had popcorn!

Yummy ice cream. Ella is a pretty neat ice cream eater.

Juliet enjoying her ice cream

Ella and Juliet traded strollers for a while so Ella got to eat ice cream with Stella

It seems like Ella has had a cold since mid August, so we decided to just lay low with her today. Ella spoke to grandma on the phone this morning and we didn’t put grandma on the speaker phone like we usually do. Instead, I held the phone to Ella’s ear and let them have a private conversation. Ella was listening so intently and answering grandma’s question. On our end, the conversation sounded like this…”Yes, ok, ok, yes, yes, red, ok, ok, New Jersey Park, ok, ok, I can’t wait to see you”. We can’t believe what a big girl Ella is becoming! We played around the house in the morning and were contemplating taking her to this toddler thing called “Raze, Rise and Recycle” AKA “Toddler Burning Man” by Ellen’s house, but she fell asleep in her stroller the second we put her in. She took a really good nap and Sunny and I enjoyed a beautiful walk on a beautiful day. This evening, Debby, Toby and Rachel came over to spend some time with us (well really with Ella). It was a sweet night. We had dinner and then Ella played with the girls. Debby got to read the Pigeon books to Ella and she loved it. Ella really loved playing with Rachel and at one point demanded, “Rachel play with toys with Ella”. Here are some pictures of the night.

Ella and Rachel playing in the tunnel.

Ella having a serious conversation with Toby

Playing around with Debby

A kiss for Rachel